Kirkdale Cave facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Kirkdale Cave |
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Entrance to Kirkdale Cave
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| Location | Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, England |
| OS grid | SE 6784 8560 |
| Length | 436 metres (1,430 ft) |
| Elevation | 58 metres (190 ft) |
| Discovery | 1821 |
| Geology | Jurassic Corallian Limestone |
| Entrances | 1 |
| Access | Entrance is in face of old quarry |
Kirkdale Cave is a cave and fossil site located in Kirkdale near Kirkbymoorside in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, England. The cave was discovered by workmen in 1821, and was found to contain fossilized bones of a variety of mammals not currently found in Great Britain, including hippopotamus (the farthest north any such remains have ever been found), elephant, and the remains of numerous cave hyenas. William Buckland analyzed the cave and its contents in December 1821: he determined that the bones were from the remains of animals brought into the cave by hyenas who had been using it for a den, and not a result of the Biblical flood floating animal remains in from distant lands as he had first thought. His reconstruction of an ancient ecosystem from detailed analysis of fossil evidence was admired at the time, and considered to be an example of how geo-historical research should be done.
The cave was extended from its original length of 175 metres (574 ft) to 436 metres (1,430 ft) by Scarborough Caving Club in 1995. A survey was published in Descent magazine.
Contents of the cave
The fossil bones found in the cave included elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, hyenas, bison, giant deer, smaller mammals and birds. This is the northernmost site in the world where hippopotamus remains have been found. It also included a considerable amount of fossilized hyena faeces. The fossilized remains were embedded in a silty layer sandwiched between layers of stalagmite.
Impact and legacy
The specimens were an original part of the archaeology collection of the Yorkshire Museum and it is said that "the scientific interest aroused founded the Yorkshire Philosophical Society". While criticized by some, William Buckland's analysis of Kirkland Cave and other bone caves was widely seen as a model for how careful analysis could be used to reconstruct the Earth's past, and the Royal Society awarded William Buckland the Copley Medal in 1822 for his Kirkdale paper. At the presentation the society's president, Humphry Davy, said:
by these inquiries, a distinct epoch has, as it were, been established in the history of the revolutions of our globe: a point fixed from which our researches may be pursued through the immensity of ages, and the records of animate nature, as it were, carried back to the time of the creation.
Region
The cave is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Geological Conservation Review site.
The Saxon St Gregory's Minster with its unusual sundial is nearby.
